[QUOTE=lm1883;185618]Oil and other resources coupled with a strategic position. [/QUOTE]
Resources? Like most 3rd world regions they sucked that tit dry and Alaska now has a $4 billion dollar deficit and is still paying oil companies.
Something like 88 percent of Alaska timber is exported to places like China so the forests are being stripped bare for the benefit of a few landowners and so the State can fill a bag with cash to trade for the political “favors” that keep your tax money flowing into the State so that the “last of the frontiersmen” don’t march on Juneau and upset the cruise ship passengers.
Strategic position? What, a waypoint for cruise missile nav systems? The only reason there is so much military crap up there now is because the politicians have been well greased to make sure they stay there. Alaska is not like some northern Puerto Rico, it is not going to defend us against a Soviet invasion. The State is more like Saudi Arabia without cash reserves … they can keep the natives at bay as long as the oil money and your taxes keep flowing in. When that stops it will be a whole new game.
No matter how you measure it, Alaska really is “Appalachia by the sea” in nearly every respect. It pays its citizens oil company hush money to keep quiet and keep buying snow machines and new pickup trucks instead of investing that money in infrastructure and education, and preparing for the changes that are already pushing them into a corner.
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;185614]Shit, try living here and seeing it first hand. Stand behind someone at the register in Walmart and watch them slide that EBT card for Doritos, cokes, little Debbie’s and sour patch kids. Then they walk out to a car that has more money in rims and tires than my whole car costs.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=lm1883;185637]In 2014 Alaska mined $1.2billion in gold, with total mineral production over $3.5 billion, $1.7 billion from fishing, etc…They are a state rich with resources that can be sold for revenue, without which we cannot find the treasury and regardless of how you feel about our government (and we agree there) we still need an outside revenue stream to keep the lights on.
Strategically they sit on the Northwest passage and their close proximity to undiscovered Arctic resources are going to be vital for their extraction. That means more revenue, and we will need it.
Are their politicians corrupt? No more or less than any of them in the Lower 48. Are they milking the system? Sure, but who isn’t? Will they lose the means to buy off their people? Possibly, but not in my lifetime. They have the means to remedy their financial issues better than any other state in the union, and like any other state in the Union, they won’t until it is thrust on them. I feel the same about Illinois as you do about Alaska, but hey, what can you do? Best to sit back and watch the ride and say “I told you so”.[/QUOTE]
Alaska has long been socialist, corporate socialist. Thank goodness the Alaskans get a cut, unlike the citizens of other oil producing and resource rich states. The resource companies still get socialized expenses and tax free money out the wazzoo. For some reason the people that strip the resources of the USA to sell overseas, get tax subsidies to the point of paying nearly no taxes, get public assistance at every turn while raking in billions of profits for themselves which they hide in tax havens doesn’t piss people off as much as that person buying gummy bears for their kids with EBT, which also pisses me off, they should buy 'em a apple or something healthy. But if you eliminated EBT, free school lunch, welfare, end medicare/medicaid and deport every undocumented immigrant the rape of the USA would continue. These crooks were raping the taxpayers before EBT, medicare and welfare were invented. They love illegal immigrants and legal temporary workers too !
[QUOTE=lm1883;185659]I think you missed my point. Like I said above: the state, nation, county, whomever, need revenue to fund what ever they want to do, even if it is financed (EBT, Medicaid, etc… are funded in part by this revenue). That means selling goods and services outright or taxing them. Alaska is a state with a very small population and a large number of resources in a very strategic position in the Arctic. Goods and services from this location may be sold and taxed to provide revenue not just to Alaska but to the USA as well. That is why I am glad Alaska is part of our union.[/QUOTE]
I got your point. I am also glad Alaska is part of the union. As part of the union the resources especially those owned by the people of the USA should not be sold or exported unless the people of the USA share in the proceeds at market rates. At least Alaska’s citizens get some of the oil revenue to spend as they please as opposed to going into the hands of the politicians/government such as is the case with most oil producing states. Now if they’d just do the same with timber, gold etc., it would help the economy. Most developed countries tax public resources harvested by corporations at much a higher rate than the USA. To tax public resources via a royalty whether by the barrel or the board foot at artificially low rates is in effect socialism for a very small group. Privately owned lands cannot compete with these government lands which give away resources at rock bottom prices.
[QUOTE=tengineer1;185654]Alaska has long been socialist, corporate socialist. Thank goodness the Alaskans get a cut, unlike the citizens of other oil producing and resource rich states. [/QUOTE]
What? Alaska socialist? To pay the citizens a cut instead of investing in the future is closer to the way Saudi Arabia do it then anything else. It’s impressive how Alaska has managed to squander its resources.
Good news. We missed a great opportunity to release them from the bonds of American imperialism after they kicked us out of Vieques. I was on the ammo ship that went and picked up the last pieces of ordnance left over as the handful of remaining American navy personnel packed their bags. The local activists, Hollywood celebrities and Al Sharpton had moved on to exciting new causes and Rosie Roads looked like a ghost town.
[QUOTE=lm1883;185658]… if they want to build roads and educate their children somebody better create some sort of revenue to tax or fill the coffer. [/QUOTE]
Of course someone has to pay … the problem is nearly all funding comes out of the pockets of “lower 48” taxpayers. With reference to road building (and recreational trails) take a look at http://dot.alaska.gov/stwdplng/cip/stip/amendments/1619DraftSTIP/0/index.shtml and pay particular attention to the funding codes.
Schools? Education Week places Alaska schools at #47 of 51 in the ranking of school quality. This is despite leading the nation in per pupil spending by about 80 percent above the US average. Some education rating groups place it as high as #20 but somewhere between #32 and #47 seems to be the norm and none of them give Alaska a higher grade than a C.
Where Alaska rates pretty high is in the amount of federal funding (out of your pocket - not the State’s) that goes into K-12 schools. Alaska is #5 in that list.
That is my money going to fill the coffers that keep Alaska politicians rich.
I love the bit about the bridge to nowhere being an airport access thing. I was there when it all started and it was a pure out and out scam to make some timberland available for politician’s buddies and was actually a pair of bridges miles away from the airport. The story seems to have changed over the years thanks to Ms. Palin seeing the results of supporting that stupidity more clearly than she could see Russia from her house.
Face it man, Alaska politics is 3rd world kleptocracy at its finest.
[QUOTE=jbtam99;185680]Looks like the union up there is getting restless about Crowley losing out to ECO too: [/QUOTE]
they should be the shameless way don Vito Chouest “greases” everybody in Alaska! The Godfather has big plans to take over Alaskan maritime and was poised to own the arctic offshore before Shell fell on their face up north.
still gotta wonder what’s gonna happen to the great blue whale? still tied up at Terminal 5 in Seattle. Wonder if there is a full crew aboard milking that one?
[QUOTE=CaliforniaOso;185701]calling the U.S. Merchant Marine “highway robbers.”[/QUOTE]
Any working folk making a wage above the minimum required by law , which hasn’t changed on the federal level since 2009, are highway robbers to many people. A mariner making $75,000/yr is down right criminal to hear those elected by you and others tell it.
With the Jones Act fleet is suffering from an ageing problem you should believe there would be a drive to renew the fleet, but that is apparently not the cases. Aside from tankers, the average age of the fleet is not falling, which is presumably because of the double hull ruling imposed for tankers, both by IMO and US laws.